At least 14 people, including two children, have been killed after a massive fire broke out at a hotel in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal. Two people were also seriously injured in the fire, which started on Tuesday night at Rituraj Hotel in Kolkata city. The blaze is now under control, but authorities say they are still carrying out rescue operations. It's not yet clear how the fire started. Police have set up a special investigation team to look into the incident. Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on X that he was "anguished by the loss of lives" and announced financial compensation to the families of the victims. Deadly fires are often reported in buildings in Indian cities, with poor planning and lax enforcement of safety regulations playing a role. Last year, at least 27 people died in a massive fire at a games arcade in the western state of Gujarat. Months later, 10 newborns were killed in Uttar Pradesh state after a blaze broke out in the neonatal unit of a hospital in Jhansi district. In Kolkata, reports say guests at the hotel fled to the building rooftop and used flashlights from their phones to signal for help. Videos show people climbing onto ledges outside their room windows to escape the fire. Hydraulic ladders were used by firefighters to rescue those stranded on the ledges, the Indian Express newspaper reported. Most of the victims were guests who were not able to get out of their rooms, police told the newspaper. Manoj Kumar Verma, Kolkata police chief, said that the special investigation team will look into the difficulties faced by hotel guests in evacuating and whether fire exits were operational. The state's social welfare minister, Sashi Panja, called the fire an "unfortunate incident". "The fire brigade tried to rescue all the people but some of them unfortunately died because of suffocation," she told reporters. "Two children were among those killed." Sukanta Majumdar, a junior federal minister and chief of West Bengal's opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, has criticized the state government and called for "stricter monitoring" of fire safety measures to prevent such tragedies in the future. — BBC
